Cannon Automotive Group

Reviews 4

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Don Buckey

I bought a 2008 Hyundai Sonata with 85K miles on 11/9/15 from Joe Kostecki, whom I couldnt be happier with. Cannon Auto Group offers a standard, free, 3-month, 3000-mile warranty on the major components. 15 days after buying the Sonata, my engine overheated & failed. 15 days! The 3rd party warranty company that Cannon Auto Group contracts with, AUL, would not cover the damage, because the root cause was determined to be a radiator hose-clamp issue, which caused a coolant leak, which caused the engine to overheat, which caused the engine to fail. When a third-party warranty company walks away, which they appear to make every effort to do, a buyer finds out what kind of people & what kind of dealership he is doing business with. Are they going to honor the 3-month, 3K-mile warranty that they promote and provide or not? Again, the engine failure occurred only 15 days after I purchased it. While some of the employees at Cannon were trying to help us and find a mutually satisfactory solution, the three Cannon brothers, owners of Cannon Auto Group, decided to pull the plug on those efforts and totally wash their hands of the problem, dumping it right back into my lap. My problem! Cannons maintenance department had inspected the car, found it to be safe and road-worthy & advertised it for sale. Prior to purchasing the vehicle, I had the Hyundai dealership in Lakeland perform a pre-buy inspection, revealing no apparent abnormalities & I subsequently bought the car. After the engine failure, Jenkins Hyundai in Leesburg, FL, which is the closest Hyundai dealership to me in The Villages, FL, performed the "autopsy" on the vehicle & told me they couldn’t imagine that two dealerships had given this car a clean bill of health, because there was clear evidence of dried, crystalized antifreeze at the hose-radiator connection points, a tiny hole in one of the top radiator hoses at the edge of the clamp & one of the hoses was slightly warped at the clamp - and these were not hidden or hard to see. Additionally, one of the radiator hose clamps had been replaced with a non-standard clamp, and Cannon Auto Group, according to Carfax, was one of the two companies that had serviced this vehicle over the past 2.5 years. Jenkins Hyundai-Leesburg said this red flag was obvious and, if they had performed the pre-purchase inspection, would have recommended replacing the radiator hoses and performing a coolant flush of the system before purchasing it. If this action had been taken, the engine failure would not have taken place, certainly not this quickly after my purchasing the car. They said that, on a 7 year-old car with 85,000 miles, hoses and belts should always be checked closely. I am finding that the most meaningful way to evaluate an auto dealership isnt after everything goes as hoped for and planned; its when things go awry. This becomes a moment of truth. Will they step up and do what is right, fair and reasonable, or will they “duck-and-cover” behind their third-party warranty company? I purchased the car in good faith and even paid another dealership to have another set of eyes look it over. Yes, they gave me an opinion and apparently overlooked a potential problem, but they didn’t sell me the car. Cannon Auto Group sold me the car and seemingly offered a free, major component warranty for 3 months, 3000 miles. The engine failed in 15 days and less than 1000 miles. Is it fair and reasonable to expect me to suffer the entire financial impact of this engine failure? Is there something that I did wrong? In my mind, there could be several acceptable solutions, including but not limited to: 1) Install a remanufactured engine, cost estimate $5100, parts and labor, or 2) Replace the 2008 Hyundai Sonata Limited, sticker price $7340, with a suitable, mutually satisfactory replacement, or 3) Kill the original deal and refund the money I paid for the vehicle. Update: Cannon has since offered a 50% settlement for a replacement engine and installation, which I appreciate and have accepted.

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Courtney J

I cant say enough good things about my experience at Cannon. I initially purchased a 2016 Subaru Outback and worked with Emmet, he was helpful and the purchase process went very smoothly. Unfortunately because of back problems the lumbar in the Outback turned out to be too much for me. Service attempted to remedy the problem but were unable to. This put me in a situation where I needed to trade my outback in after only 10 days. In order to avoid losing too much money on this deal I thought it best to go back to Cannon. I talked with Emmet who escalated me to Will Coleman, Will went to bat for me and paired me up with John Allison who was not only knowledge about Subaru but also the Cadillac and Buicks. I have a very busy schedule and was pressed for time. When I arrived at the dealership Will and John had already pulled a Cadillac SUV for me to test drive and then John worked with me for hours test driving different cars and finding the right one for me. I finally settled on a Cadillac ATS, a far cry from the Outback I was so in love with, but the comfortable seats in the ATS sold me. Will and John found the color combo and package I wanted at another dealership and had it at Cannon the next morning. My very complicated trade took less than an hour and I was out the door with my new car. John Allison has made himself available for all my car needs since Ive taken delivery of my ATS. The customer service at this dealership is bar none. I would recommend Cannon to all my friends and family when they car shop. Will Coleman and John Allison represent salesmanship at its finest.

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Eric Wheedleton

Horrible customer experience, after working with Joe on coming to look at a 2016 CTS and the need for an overnight test drive and being told that would not be an issue after comfirming figures on the car knowing the discounts. This was approved by said general manager Roland? Well when leaving work early to come go over the vehicle and take the test drive I am greeted with well Joe has left for the day and no you are not be permitted to test drive the vehicle unless you let us run credit and have final deal in place due to insurance company not covering a vehicle over $50000. Well when you take my insurance on my $60000 Platinum F150 that is going to cover that vehicle either way. To lie to a customer to get them into the building with false promises and requiring a said deal in place that would be completely void if I came back in the morning and said I didnt like it either way. But no your employees give out false information and have people leave work early in hopes of getting a new car and no getting paid for time that has now been wasted and not even have the decency to be there for an appointment time. This is why Fields and Ed Morse will earn our business, since they wont make a customer less than anyone else or blatantly lie. The owner of this dealership should be appalled at this behavior Id rather pay more somewhere else than deal with SHADY car dealers.

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Dennis Carroll

The buying experience was typical for any dealership but where you have to be careful is when purchasing used car extended warranty. When they use terms like "bumper to bumper excluding normal wear and tear like tires, brakes" be a smart shopper and spend the time reading the contract because that is far from the truth...dont for a minute think they are looking out for your best interests, they (the folks selling you the policy) are looking out for their best interests and thats $$$...and when the time comes and you need to use the warranty, its then run around begins. To quote a service employee "what you are sold in there,(being the finance office) is not necessarily the reality out here"...wow. Not saying Cannon is a bad dealership, just be a smart shopper and make the right decisions. REBUTTAL TO THE BELOW RESPONSE FROM OWNER - IM SURE YOU DID YOUR DO DILIGENCE AND INVESTIGATED PRIOR RESPONDING AND IT WOULD APPEAR YOUR STAFF PULLED THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES AS THEY DID ME...WOW AGAIN...THE ISSUE WAS THE PURCHASE OF A $2800.00 EXTENDED WARRANTY I WAS CONVINCED WOULD BE IN MY BEST INTEREST TO PURCHASE WITH THE USED CAR I BOUGHT. Please understand Mr. Cannon, I have no one to blame but myself for not investigating the contract more closely before placing my trust in your staff to look out for my best interest.

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